ORDER

RONNIE ABRAMS, District Judge.

The Court will be referring this case to the Magistrate Judge Lehrburger for a report and recommendation on any motion for judgment on the pleadings. Magistrate Judges are judges selected by the District Judges to serve for terms of eight years. Magistrate Judges are highly qualified and very experienced.

To conserve resources, to promote judicial efficiency, and in an effort to achieve a faster disposition of this matter, it is hereby ORDERED that the parties must discuss whether they are willing to consent, under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), to conducting all further proceedings before the assigned Magistrate Judge. If the parties consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide the case, the Magistrate Judge replaces the District Judge, thereby speeding up the resolution of the case (because only one judge instead of two will be involved in the case). Any appeal from a Magistrate Judge's decision following consent is directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the same way that an appeal from a District Judge's decision would be taken. By contrast, if the parties do not consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide the case, the Magistrate Judge will first issue a Report and Recommendation, and the District Judge will then consider any objections either party has to the Report and Recommendation before a final judgment is entered, at which point an appeal to the Second Circuit could be taken.

If both parties consent to proceed before the Magistrate Judge, counsel for Defendant must, within two weeks of the date of this Order, submit to the Orders & Judgments Clerk at judgments@nysd.uscourts.gov a fully executed Notice, Consent, and Reference of a Civil Action to a Magistrate Judge form, a copy of which is attached to this Order (and also available at http://nysd.uscourts.gov/file/forms/consent-to-proceed-before-us-magistrate-iudge). If the Court approves that form, all further proceedings will then be conducted before Magistrate Judge Lehrburger rather than before the undersigned. An information sheet on proceedings before magistrate judges is also attached to this Order.

If you do not consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide your case, there will be no adverse consequences. If either party does not consent to conducting all further proceedings before the Magistrate Judge, the parties must file a joint letter, within two weeks of the date of this Order, advising the Court that the parties do not consent, but without disclosing the identity of the party or parties who do not consent.

The Clerk of the Court is directed to mail a copy of this Order to Plaintiff.

SO ORDERED.